Santen Choling Buddhist Monastery

The last stop on our sunrise tour after Tiger Hill and Bartasia Loop was a
small Monastery near Ghum. There are a number of Buddhist Monasteries
around Darjeeling; India has many Buddhists but the proximity of this region to
Tibet and Nepal means that their presence is more visible in the most Northerly
State.

This
building within the Monastery complex held the main prayer hall.

After taking off our shoes we could go inside the prayer hall, where young
boys under the supervision of a senior monk where singing chants.They
were quite happy for us to take photographs and it was slightly surreal.
While the elder monk ignored the visitors the younger boys seemed to find it
hard to concentrate and would start giggling. The Hall though was very highly
decorated with paintings and sculptures of the Buddha and photographs of the
Dalai Lama.

This is the prayer wheel, in the entrance hall of the main building, it
can be rotated by hand during the recitation of prayers.

Going around the Monastery I spotted this dog curled up against the cold
morning air. He had obviously decided that it was still too early to get
up.